Articles Archives | Page 46 of 51

Kashmir Valley to Silicon Valley

October 7, 2015 Editor

Adil Bhat Ban! Ban! Ban! From beef to internet, India seems to be running in a marathon of bans, or rather, aiming to get its name recorded in the Guinness Book of World Record for the most banned country. Whatever her aspirations, they cannot be fulfilled at the cost of Kashmir. In another tragedy of errors, as the days to embark on a journey to the United States (US), and more importantly to the Silicon Valley, approached, the Narendra Modi-led Government at the Centre in India, and the Bhartiya Janta…

A Hindu love story that echoes in Muslim homes

October 6, 2015 Editor

Javaid ul Salam Kashmiri historian, Mohammad Yusuf Taing, said that the legend of Hemal and Nagrai is a true story which reveals that the Aryans had invaded Kashmiri to clear the aboriginal Nagas from the land. “The story of Hemal Nagrai depicts that Nagas were aboriginal inhabitants of Kashmir and were ethnically cleansed by Aryan invaders, who came to Kashmir from Central Asia and committed genocide of Nagas on a scale which can be matched by events like massacre of Red Indians by Spanish Europeans of America in 1492,” Taing…

Gandhi and Kashmir

October 5, 2015 Editor

Zahir-ud-Din Gandhi visited Kashmir just once but changed the course of its history. The man ‘who experimented with the truth’ all his life, lied, resorted to coaxing and cajoling to get Kashmir for India. While most of his agitations including the Salt Agitation failed, his mission Kashmir unfortunately succeeded. The fateful events before and after Gandhi’s Kashmir visit reflect his intentions. Sher-e-Kashmir was arrested in 1946 for Quit Kashmir Movement. Jawahar Lal Nehru wanted to appear as a defence counsel to get his ‘friend’ out. However, he was denied permission…

Disconnecting Kashmir

October 5, 2015 Editor

AJAZ UL HAQUE The government decided to ban all internet services on the three Eid days. The move was likely to evoke a furious response which it did. Holding all hostage for the fault of a few is certainly not just, but we need to see the problem from a larger – less emotional and a more rational – perspective. Our dependence on the internet is too obvious to be emphasised. But given the volatility of Kashmir as a tinderbox dangerously close to the smallest ignition, certain measures become indispensable.…

Hold onto your roots

October 5, 2015 Editor

Kashmiri Language Dr Qayum Hamid Changal Few years ago I along with my parents visited one Kashmiri Pandit family in Jammu. It was a cold January and we were invited on lunch, personally I was very excited about the visit. It was my first visit to any Kashmiri Pandit family, and I knew it would be a great learning experience. Ready to explore and assimilate, as soon as we entered, we were welcomed with warmth. Tears in everybody’s eyes, we started discussing about our culture and fondness for each other.…

State on threshold of losing its identity

October 5, 2015 Editor

The year 2015 has pushed Jammu and Kashmir to an alarmingly dangerous threshold. People of the state are feeling lost and confused as they find themselves caught in a bind in an all-suffocating atmosphere of reeking corruption and an unresponsive system peppered by communalism and radicalism. Is it worth living in this state, where the leadership of all hues is self-serving and interested in promoting a highly polarised agenda? This question is haunting the people in the state, with each region and community becoming distrustful of one another. The Kashmir…

As meat is turned into a political issue across India, a Muslim ironsmith in Dadri pays the price

October 3, 2015October 3, 2015 Editor

In the Uttar Pradesh village where a mob murdered Mohammed Akhlaq for allegedly eating beef, youngsters have been avidly following the debates on cattle slaughter in Maharashtra, Kashmir and other parts of the country. Supriya Sharma Eighteen-year-old Vandana Rana is a second-year student in the Bachelors of Pharmacy course in RV Northland Institute in Dadri, about 50 kilometres from Delhi. She has read about the ban on beef in Maharashtra. As recently as last week, she watched news on TV that Kashmiris had slaughtered cows on Bakri-Eid despite a ban…

Lost identity of Kashmiris

September 30, 2015 Editor

Ashok Kaul History does not allow us to pass judgments; even, you cannot draw lessons from it. However, we can interpret it, so that the consensus version acceptable in all times and to all multiplicity, if possible could be explored. Therefore, without carrying a baggage of ideology and confessionalism, dialectics of social forces and emerging of social formations seems to be a scientific approach to comprehend the social history. Why are we cursed a pathological case? True, displacement of minority en-masse, death of one lakh people, and vanishing of primary…

Kashmir’s “Internet Curtain”!

September 29, 2015 Editor

M Ashraf Kashmir’s popular movement for freedom started in 1931. In 1938, the movement which was started for getting the basic rights in an autocratic set up by the Muslims was converted into a nationalist movement. The manifesto for the movement which was written by staunch communists B.P.L and Fredda Bedi reflected many similarities of the Russian Revolution. The Red Flag, the Plough representing the peasantry replicating the Sickle and Hammer of the Russian workers, the naming of the popular spot for public meetings as the Red Square and so…

Baking is In

September 29, 2015 Editor

Syed Asma The traditional bakery in Kashmir is gone through generational shift. The takeover is putting young and enthusiastic entrepreneurs’ raise the bar in a highly competitive market. One fine afternoon, the flamboyant ex-chief minister of J&K Dr Farooq Abdullah pulled his SUV outside a recently opened bakery shop ‘Just Baked’ in Sanat Nagar, Srinagar. Accompanied by his daughter and grandchildren, senior Abdullah purchased bakery items worth Rs 2000. It instantly made news. Launched in July 2015, the brain behind ‘Just Baked’ is Rouf Khanday: a business management graduate from…